Recently, Harrisburg's Midtown Cinema celebrated its seventh anniversary with little fanfare but one major change -- new management.

But that fact won't diminish Midtown Cinema's commitment to showing a diverse array of art films -- independent and foreign -- which has kept the small theaters with three screens going all these years. In fact, if anything, that commitment is expected to strengthen with its new owners, GreenWorks Development LLC, Zane Sebasovich, the new cinema director, vowed.

There was a time, not long ago, when central Pennsylvania cinephiles and film buffs had few options when deciding which movies to see. Mainstream theaters dotted the landscape like box office flops in the career of Chevy Chase.

Those of us who preferred American independent and foreign films to the likes of Adam Sandler comedies and Michael Bay explosion fests were forced to drive to Philadelphia or New York or patiently await the release on DVD.

All that changed on Nov. 30, 2001. That was the day Midtown Cinema was born.

Brought here under Mayor Stephen R. Reed's revitalization plans for midtown and under the tutelage of longtime theater owner Allen Brown, Midtown Cinema quickly became a bastion of art house delight for film fanatics weary of a Hollywood marketplace full of Jim Carreys, Tom Cruises and Martin Lawrences.

But it wasn't just film snobs who benefited, it was all film lovers. With something for just about everyone, Midtown Cinema hit the ground running.

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